The trade-off

He says this is the trade-off.

Home from an early morning meeting, he loosens his collar, grabs the children by theirs and shoos us to the door. “We are going for a walk!” he shouts, grabbing his Bible. And I laugh, “What are you going to do with that at the park?”

You’ll see.

She runs ahead with hair flying, careful for cars, stopping always before the next street. They throw rocks for that silly turtle - “my turtle!” - they saw just the one time in the creek bed down the street.

We walk faster, uphill, and this is too much for me after a week of feeling sick and down. But the fresh air is so sweet, my dry throat doesn’t mind so much the extra panting or coughing or chewed up water bottle some toddler tried to teethe his molars on. My legs come back to life and I breathe deeper than I have for days.

The children yell – “almost there!” “I see it!” – and he grabs my hand.

“This is the trade-off,” he says, “for all the hard stuff. We get to do this, walk with our kids on a cool morning, take them to the park. This they will remember.”

He says it’s a spiritual discipline, the rest and the peace. He says he wants this for us, to be disciplined. Not to because it makes us more righteous, but because it brings us closer to Him.

We sit on the swing in the dancing shade, the girl elbow-deep in sand and the boy climbing higher. “I’m thinking I should read from the Peters,” he says.

And so he does.

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. 

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners 

in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 

God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. 

As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. 

May God give you more and more grace and peace.

1 Peter 1:1-2 NLT

***

He calls me just now. Clocked in late to the second job, talked to by the boss. Yes, there is a trade-off, I think. I hope we land on the right side.

Actually, Lord, I just hope we land.